Forgive! It’s necessary for your soul! Don’t let your forgiveness be swayed by how you feel, just because you are still angry does not mean that you can not forgive. Anger is an emotion, if you forgive, you wish them no ill will and (?). Emotion is not a sin it is only when you act on the emotion in a sinful way that it is a sin. You can not judge your spiritual life by how you feel, since greater love is when you do good contrary to your feelings. The greater the saint is the less he feels love for spiritual things because God wants us to prove our love by acting without good feelings to increase our love…

One of our retired weekend temps, a former head of the U of Minnesota’s Newman Center, gave a wonderful sermon where he listed the excuses used by the nine lepers who did not thank Jesus for their healing. These lame excuses were very familiar to all of the congregation since at one time or another we have all used them: something more important to do; husband needed the car, didn’t want to be late for a meeting, etc.

He also gave an identity to the one leper who did come back to give thanks. He did not really want to since he was a Palestinian Arab named Muhammad. And Jesus was a Jew. But he did come back.

So, here’s the question: are you the one who gives thanks, or are you one of the nine? Like me, you are probably like the grateful one half the time and the ungrateful ones the other half. Remembering to be grateful in our entitlement culture can be all too easy. The mantra of “my rights” and “I am owed” and “Give me mine” can drive even the holiest Catholic to forgetfulness.

Fr talked about the the typical funeral will see man’s version of the parable in the Gospel. The nice funeral parable sees God forgetting our offences. An actual parable is different. Rejecting His Mercy has consequences. The servant did not show mercy when mercy was shown to him. The Master therefore handed the servant over to the torturers.

Fr. discussed the Jesuits being kicked out of Japan. Before leaving the priests ensured that the faithful knew their Rosary, among other things. 200 years later Japan allowed missionaries again. Instead of finding no faith, the missionaries discovered small pockets of devout Catholics. Fr. then instructed us in the necessity of praying a daily Rosary and to have faith that God will work it out.

Our former associate was said Mass as it was his 80thbirthday. His theme was gratitude as the Samaritan leper demonstrated. Then he went on that tell us how grateful he was for his priesthood, and that every day since his ordination, he had thanked God that he was a priest.

Thanks to all of you for the sermon posts. They are extra special this week because all masses in my area were cancelled due to the hurricane. My family is blessed to have been spared any damage, but thousands of people are displaced, and evacuations are still ongoing as dams fail and rivers have yet to crest. Please keep the people of North Carolina in your prayers.

EF Mass. One talent is about 180 months wages so 10,000 talents is a debt of about 150,000 years wages or about 2 Billion $ in today’s wage levels. Obviously an impossible amount to be repaid. Sin is a great debt, one that separates us from God and that we cannot overcome by our own efforts just like this servant could not pay the debt by his own efforts. If you are shown mercy, you must also show mercy to others.

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